The present invention relates generally to the activation of accounts and, more particularly, to the activation of consumer or other accounts which are associated with a product or service of value, including prepaid phone cards, gift cards, ATM cards, and the like utilizing an existing point-of-sale (POS) debit or credit card authorization processing system without any actual transfer of funds.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,000,608 entitled “Multifunctional Card System” describes and claims a system for the activation of cards, such as prepaid phone cards, gift cards, and the like utilizing an existing debit card/credit card processing system. As described in detail beginning at column 5, line 49, the system and methods employed in the '608 patent suffer from a significant drawback, namely because of the way the system functions, the activation of a card or other account using existing debit or credit card networks requires the actual transfer of funds, even de minimis funds, for activation of an account or card. The '608 patent describes a system and methods in which nominal funds (i.e., one cent or more) may be employed for this purpose. However, because of the requirement for an actual transfer of funds, the system and method described in the '608 patent suffers from certain inefficiencies. The present invention is an improvement upon the system and methods of the '608 patent in that it establishes a system and method for the activation of consumer or other accounts, including prepaid cards for goods or services using an existing credit/debit card processing system which does not require the transfer of any funds.